Mitsubishi Electric offers free recycling for air conditioning units

Mitsubishi Electric has joined forces with Overton Recycling to offer customers a free collection takeback service for its end-of-life air conditioning equipment.

The recycling programme aims to recover the maximum amount of raw materials from used air conditioning and photovoltaic modules and return them back to the supply chain. Systems with refrigerant pumped back to the outdoor unit are also included within the initiative.

Under the scheme, Overton will collect any equipment, regardless of the brand, for Mitsubishi Electric account holders or its corporate clients. The recycling process is capable of recovering and recycling 99.1% of all materials. Once degassed, units are stripped by hand and processed into the raw materials for reuse.

Mitsubishi Electric's marketing manager for corporate solutions and air conditioning products, Debbie Reeve, said: "Recycling is one of our core corporate commitments and forms part of the way we do business through our Green Gateway philosophy.

"Many of our corporate customers have been asking for a recycling scheme and we believe that this is not only the right thing for a responsible manufacturer to do, but that it makes sound economic sense as well."

She added: "We have worked with Overton as part of our 3 R's approach to manufacturing as we are committed to reducing the amount of resources we use in our products in the first place, and we already incorporate and reuse recycled materials in our manufacturing process."

Overton Recycling's managing director Dean Overton said he was "delighted" to be working with Mitsubishi Electric. "Mitsubishi Electric's forward thinking approach to recycling demonstrates its commitment to ensure that equipment containing R22 gas is disposed of responsibly by 2015 and we look forward to a long and successful working relationship."

An online take-back software tool, designed specifically for Mitsubishi Electric customers is available here